8 NATO troops die in 24 hours in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO said eight of its service members died in three attacks in southern Afghanistan in a 24-hour period ending Friday, and an Afghan official identified four of the dead as American soldiers.

The attacks Thursday and Friday struck at the heart of Afghanistan's turbulent south.

NATO said one service member was killed Friday in what it described as an insurgent attack. Four more were killed by a roadside bomb, also on Friday.

Another roadside bomb killed three service members on Thursday, NATO said in a statement released Friday. It did not identify the nationalities of those killed, and gave no more details.

The deadliest attack on Friday appeared to have taken place in Kandahar. Bacha Khan, the governor of Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province, said four American soldiers died and one was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded while the soldiers were on morning patrol with the Afghan police.

The deaths bring to nine the number of international troops killed in the first week of the year. At least 544 NATO troops died in Afghanistan in 2011, the second-deadliest year for the coalition in the decade-old war.